At All Costs
by Captain Awesomesauce
Summary: Me and Lukas: part of a band in the live finals of a nation-wide competition. We could have fame, fortune and untold glory- but there's a catch: one of us must go. One of us must leave, in front of the cameras, and never come back. But we'd rather leave together with our honour and friendship intact, right? ... right? DenNor, SuFin, other pairings inside.


**Hi there, guys! I fully realise I haven't updated my other stories in æons, but I have several good reasons for that: a) My computer actually broke, and only arrived back from the shop two days ago. b) I've had to do some exam revision. c) I've had terrible writer's block. Anyway, this story is based on an actual book (_You Don't Know Me_- by Sophie Bennett), so I hold no claim that this idea or some words used are original. But though the first few chapters will be similar to YDKM, the rest of the plot will be entirely different.**

**Now please read and take a little bit of your time to leave a review, as it will be incredibly helpful to me.**

**Thank you:)**

* * *

... A moment. A split-second.

That's all it can take for your opinion of someone to shatter into a million pieces- or to find out who you really are. But that moment doesn't come yet, because first I want you to see the rest from my perspective, to see the truth before you judge me for what I did.

Because you don't know me, but you may know about me,

and nobody knows the truth.

* * *

We were in Lukas' bedroom at the end of a long week at school. My legs were dangling off the edge of his bed as I watched the cars zip through the busy street, half-focused on the game tutorial in front of me. It had been a turbulent enough year already, but with exams coming up, it could only get worse. The weekend brought peace. Well, relatively speaking; it was as peaceful as you could get when one boy- Lukas - was strumming listlessly on his guitar, another boy- Emil – was ranting about his ex-boyfriend, yet another- Tino – was trying to calm him down, and a fourth- Berwald – was staring at Tino with a mildly frightening expression on his face.

"He's evil and should jump in a fucking volcano," Emil announced, slumping huffily into a chair and folding his arms.

"I wouldn't call him _evil_, Emil," Tino suggested, "I mean, he only changed his status on BSynkd."

"In _public_!" added Emil. "Just because I was going to France, he said he didn't think he could maintain a long distance relationship. I was there **two weeks**! Leon Wang is a scumbag and that's final."

It was the first time we had all hung out outside of school for weeks thanks to all the homework we were getting. But Lukas seemed quieter and moodier lately, spending all his time playing guitar and not even bothering to hit me when I teased him, which, believe me, took all the fun out of that.

I looked across to where he was sitting and caught his eye, sharing a quiet smile over Emil's _explosion _of sorts. Lukas changed his song from the folky, restless piece to something angsty and Spanish. It was fast, loud and full of dramatic crescendos; the sort of piece you could imagine a Latin singer wailing distressedly to. Emil pouted at him.

"Stop it, Lukas. I'm not _that_ bad."

Lukas raised an eyebrow and simply played louder. "Not unless you tell me to 'stop it, _big brother_'."

The fight continued in this way for about five minutes, until Berwald finally glared at them both and they shut up- quickly. However, when Berwald glares at someone, the world doesn't automatically go back to normal. Oh hell, no! Instead, an awkward silence happens, as was happening now. And as Lukas knew, I hated silences, _especially_ awkward ones. Thankfully, Tino came to the rescue. "You need something to take your mind off him," he said to Emil. He was on the floor, sorting out a pile of rubbish that had accumulated at the bottom of Lukas' dresser. "You can't let a boy like that get to you. Oh look! Wow! Gosh, Lukas, d'you remember these?"

He smiled as he pulled out a pair of scratched yellow plastic sunglasses with flower-shaped frames. Lukas had a bit of a childish, eclectic dress sense, and I fondly remember getting him the sunglasses as a birthday prank. Unsurprisingly, I don't remember the subsequent slap in the face quite so fondly. Anyway, the point is that eclectic means it comes from a variety of sources, like the words he likes to collect.

"Oh," Lukas said, blinking owlishly in surprise. "So that's where those nasty old things got to."

Tino put them on. "Where did you get them?"

"Can't remember," Lukas said absently, looking back at his guitar. "I think Matthias got them for me- at the Summer Festival?"

No one was looking at me, and for the first time in my life I was happy about it, because no one saw the sudden blush on my cheeks.

Tino went over to the mirror. He looked great in the glasses, even though they were probably designed for little children. He had a small, childish face and wavy blond hair that looked good with everything. Stepping back slightly, he grinned.

"You can't be unhappy in these," he announced.

Then he started to sing a little tune:

"_I put my sunglasses on_

_My yellow sunglasses on_"

That's how it started. I think I came up with the next lines.

"_And I think of you_

_And all the things you do_

_And it doesn't matter anymore because…_"

Tino laughed and joined in:

"_I've got my sunglasses on._"

Lukas strummed a new tune on the guitar to go with it. It was different this time: fun, silly and catchy. Not angsty at all. And not _at all _like that moody number he'd been working on earlier, which had been starting to worry me.

We liked the lines, so we sang them again, and even Emil and Berwald joined in as alternate melody and bass respectively. It was something we did a lot when we were all together. We'd been doing it so long we even had a band name. Or three. We called ourselves the Kalmar 5, or the Cheerios (my favourite breakfast food), or The Berzerkerz, but only if Lukas wasn't around- he's a stickler for spelling. Emil would choose the music. Tino was our lead singer. Lukas was instrumentals. Berwald was wardrobe and I was catering.

It had been like that since Tino, Berwald and I were in primary school together. Lukas and Emil joined later, when they arrived in my class at St Christopher's. We'd get together… we'd sing. We didn't normally write out own stuff, though; we were more a cover band (except more badass). But that day Lukas had his guitar out and Tino looked really funny in those glasses, and the music and words just seemed to flow. They weren't Shakespeare, I'll admit, but they made Emil smile and that was enough.

Lukas reached over to his bedside table and grabbed a notepad from it. He always had one in case he was inspired to write something, you know, as you do. I used to think of myself as a bit of a poet until Lukas arrived, but he was the genuine article.

"How does the third line go again?" he asked.

I grinned. "Are you writing it down?" I was flattered. He'd never written my words down before.

He shrugged dismissively. "It's good, Matthias. Very catchy, except I'm not sure if I've got that line right."

"I can only remember it if I sing it," I said, suddenly realizing this was true. "I know- why don't we just record it?!" I waved my new iPhone at him, thinking it was the perfect chance to get a new app. That phone was the most awesome present I'd ever received, and I was slightly obsessed.

Lukas agreed, curious, and I found a recording app. We worked out some extra verses, then tried the song out, all gathered around the phone, not sure where the mic was. It sounded ok, but a bit tinny. It was completely working as therapy for Lukas' gloomy mood and Emil's heartbreak, though.

Lukas dug out the microphone he used when he recorded his own songs and, miraculously, also an adapter to fit my phone. We sang it once more, in harmony, then played it back. Surprisingly, we didn't sound too bad.

"That phone's so cool, Matthias!" Tino said. "I know! Why don't I video us on it, too?" He reddened slightly and cleared his throat. "Er- I mean if that's all right with you guys."

Epic, I said. Go for it. We don't have time now, but why don't we have a band get-together on my birthday? We can dress up weird like we used to in the old days, and make loads of videos. It'll be hilarious.

Hahahahahahaha.

* * *

So we do.

My birthday is three weekends later. I invite them all over for a sleepover at mine, and bring home a bunch of spare clothing from my Saturday job at a vintage shop.

Mum makes us some dyrlægens natmad for lunch, then we scrabble upstairs and dress up as pop stars, because we haven't totally mastered maturity _yet_. Not in secret, anyway. Not when it's just us five.

Highlights include Berwald's Abba impressions, Emil as Katy Perry and Tino as Kylie Minogue in gold sequin shorts and a white hoodie. Boy or not, he could practically _be_ Kylie. Lukas sings a long, sad Norwegian folk song, not quite in the spirit of things, but still beautiful (and I don't _completely_ mean Lukas, there). I'm some bizarre cross between a rapper and a tourist in my short white shorts, Hawaiian shirt, leather jacket, sunglasses and lots of bling-y jewellery. We are also, if I say so myself, quite brilliant as a One Direction parody act.

'Sunglasses' is last. We mime to the audio we did in Lukas' room, but by now we're getting tired and I'm half-ready for bed.

It's an epic end to an epic day as we eat our warm brownies and homemade popcorn. We watch Dark Floors and Troll Hunter back to back in our pyjamas and go to sleep around 5 o'clock peppered in brownie crumbs and all huddled in a heap under our duvets on the floor.

Precisely four days later, my iPhone disappears.

* * *

**dyrlægens natmad- literally veterinarian's night snack: smørrebrød (buttered rye bread) with a kind of p****âté, salt-beef, aspic jelly and red onion rings.**

* * *

**Thank's so much for reading, and I'd really appreciate it if you reviewed:) Honestly, reviews brighten my sad, pathetic days. So please, take pity on this sad, bad author and leave some feedback, constructive or not.**


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